Hi Smileybird, welcome. You are gathering valuable information about what works for you, something a diet will never give you. You are also starting to build good habits.

It took me about 6 weeks before I could say my weight was lower than when I joined the forum. In the meantime, I experimented with how much and what sort of food I could eat, and my weight fluctuated somewhat. After a short time, I started to rein in my eating, and my weight began to go down.

I weigh daily - it's information for me, not trauma. Although I may be pleased or otherwise by what the scale shows, it doesn't affect my mood afterwards. How often you weigh is up to you, there are no rules here.

Thanks for the reply! It reassuring to hear that someone else has been in a similar situation.

I think I was hoping that if I followed the rules I would magically lose weight, regardless of calorie intake. Itâ€™s no surprise that Iâ€™m finding this diet easy to stick to since Iâ€™m eating loads of love,y food. However I have switched from an 8 inch dinner plate to a 12 inch plate because I have this â€˜fearâ€™ abhor the last meal of the day. I have actually been falling asleep after my evening meal because Iâ€™ve eaten so much.

Hi Smiley, itâ€™s taking me ages to lose weight- probably at least 2 months before the scale shifted at all. Yes I was no doubt eating too many calories, but I think with No S you have to go through that phase. It doesnâ€™t work if you try to control the calories too much at first (though I think people have had success controlling them a bit more later on in the process). At first, itâ€™s really hard to go between meals without solid food, and your calorific drinks will help you in that process of adjustment. Then gradually, you find you donâ€™t need them, and (on a good day) you quite enjoy being empty. As for weekends, I think most of us overeat for some time before that settles down too. But then like magic, you find you still prefer that N day feeling, of enjoying your meals, so not snacking.

Iâ€™m still only 2 1/2 months into the process myself, and have only lost a couple of pounds, but the N day routine has started to bed in, and there have been magical shifts in my relationship to food. Itâ€™s like having brain surgery in slow motion. For quite a long time, you just have to have faith in the process, and enjoy the other things youâ€™re getting out of it. I donâ€™t speak with the authority of many other members of the forum as Iâ€™m still a beginner myself, but this is how I feel about it right now.

I'm your height, and started NoS two years ago at a "normal" weight to successfully lose "vanity" fat pounds that had bothered me for years. It took me about two months to consistently lose seven pounds, and I went slightly beyond from there. I have consciously maintained since then, with a slight detour over the recent holidays, which I'm quickly rectifying. I utilized a modified form of NoS to lose weight/fat from the get-go, but I did have strategies in place that ensured that this happened.

Give NoS more time. The three-meal structure is a wonderful way to lose weight, as it follows modern society's eating patterns which will make both the losing phase and maintenance phase as pain-free and easy to incorporate as possible.

That being said, fat loss is all about reducing calories. However you choose to do this is totally up to your meal timing preferences, your food tastes, and what your body can tolerate in terms of restrictions.

Some strategies that may help:

**Reduce portion sizes immediately. Don't give up your favorite foods, just have less of them.

**Try to take S days in stride, if you choose to follow vanilla NoS, instead of making them your entire focus during the week.

**Think of NoS as a "way of eating" instead of "another diet" to avoid any negative connotations associated with it.

**Weigh yourself daily and adjust your food amounts the next day accordingly. If you're up a pound or two, reduce your food volumes the next day. If you're losing, stay the course. Simple!

Feel free to read back through my previous posts for other tips, and I'm always available by PM if you'd like additional help. Losing fat on NoS can definitely be done!

Good luck!

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
~Jimmy Dean

The second you overcomplicate it is the second it becomes the thing for which it is a corrective.
~El Fug, on the NoS Diet

Just in case you need the dead horse beat a bit more: IMHumbleO, the question should not be how long did it take to lose weight but how long did it take before you were consistently eating less and possibly better quality food?

No S CANNOT defy the laws of physics! It seemed you answered a lot of your own question with detailing your practices so far. They could just be subconscious backlash against the prospect of a reduction in the food supply. Yes, the mechanism can read your mind! And it can change it to justify keeping the bounty coming! But it will usually calm down when it sees you aren't going to go commando on it.

Nobody can make you any hard-and-fast promises about weight loss or appetite reduction, etc. There are common trends and are unpredictable for any individual. Your "moderation" will likely be in a category different from others'. You can find that out only over time. I did lose ten pounds in the first two months because my issue was permasnacking/gorging on sweets. My meals were already pretty decent, at least with the relative volume of dense-to-light foods. But oh, how I also went to town on sweets EVERY day before No S. Just not doing that on N days was enough to make a difference. But then most the effect of that was over. I think it took me the rest of that year to lose another 10 lbs. I was a lot heavier than you are.

The closer you are to a "reasonable" weight, the more your body will just keep adjusting things to keep equilibrium. There are probably some precise changes you can make, but I wouldn't recommend those now. That's setting the bar too high to start.

Bottom line is that you are eventually going to have to eat less of SOMETHING long term to lose weight. Try not to think of is as being on a diet but as changing your diet. (I'm repeating someone else. But it is a crucial difference.)

I've seen some people who wanted to lose only a little have it go fast, but not typically. I've even seen people who didn't even want to lose drop weight! And the truth is I've seen some people be religious about it and not lose for quite awhile. Then they had to do more calm observation/ reality check.

The other question I would suggest you ponder is even if you aren't losing, what are your options? Can you say you would really be willing to use the other diet strategies to get those pounds off? (Ahem, 95-97% failure rate. And see thread Why did you leave! Why are you back?) What are the odds you would enjoy something else more? I mean, if you're not going to lose and keep weight off anyway, wouldn't you rather at least enjoy your meals? It is also crucial that you really believe that what you are doing is fair. If somewhere down deep, you are resenting it, it will fuel rebellion. It's not the only thing that can drive overeating, but it's a factor. ("If I'm doing all this and still don't lose weight, why should I hold back?" Why indeed? The answer to that will be pivotal.) You know you aren't somehow feeling it's unfair when you find you are not pouting on the inside over what you need to do. When cocaine addicts who quit on their own were asked about the drug urges, they said, yeah, they were hard, but so what? I couldn't quit and have the life I wanted without going through it. It didn't make urges go away, but it became easier to tolerate. Also, like being awakened by a raucous party or blast of a motorcycle vs. your crying baby.

And not to sound like an old biddy, but 4 weeks in is like being an hours-old newborn...

Just my two cents on the scale: I found a big backlash if I let the scale affect what I ate the next day. That sparked "diet" for me. More important to me was am I sitting down and savoring what I eat? Am I eating so that I get legitimately hungry for the next N day meal? AmI making an attempt to fill up on other pleasurable or productive tasks? Am I liking life better?

Do with the info what you will.

Count plates, not calories. Three a day. 9 years & counting
Age 65
SBMI Jan/10-30.8
Jan/12-26.8
Mar/13-24.9 Stayed at +/- 8-lb. for three years Sept/17 22.8 (but more fluctuation)
Mar/18 22.2

I started losing weight the first week. For most meals, half of my plate is fruit or veggie, or beans/lentils, relatively plain (seasoned but not creamed or buttered). However, I have included some indulgent meals like you describe, too.

I think part of No S that works for me is being able to eyeball everything on my plate quickly and easily, so I can think, is that reasonable and healthy? A plate full of cheese lasagna - not so great. I might do that every once in a while. A plate with lasagna but also some veggies and some strawberries- pretty good. Just look at your plate and don't be afraid to adjust it to take good care of your body.

I have literally just realised that though I have been thinking Iâ€™ve been eating massive portions... I have not been having seconds! So probably eating the same amount in total. The difference being that I can can now see how much Iâ€™m eating. A revelation!!!

I have literally just realised that though I have been thinking Iâ€™ve been eating massive portions... I have not been having seconds! So probably eating the same amount in total. The difference being that I can can now see how much Iâ€™m eating. A revelation!!!

LOL. I realized after I commented that for me, it was clear that I was eating less than before No S. In the beginning, I thought about food ALL.THE.TIME. But gradually I got used to eating the 3 meals, with only a drink or an apple (my mod) in between.

You've already taken the first step in the process of pre-defining the number of times you eat on weekdays. Think of it like this: there are 15 opportunities each Mon-Fri to eat a plate of food. Once you are consistently able to adhere to only that many input opportunities (which is the biggest challenge for most people - and why Reinhard recommends a significant period of simply building that habit, without additional rules about what is on your plate), then whitling away at the excess becomes easier/systematic.

Once you've built your habit and consistently demonstrated to yourself that you can stick to only those 15 plates per mon-fri, you are in a great position to tweak without too much complexity. For example, rather than thinking 'I have to go completely low carb/low fat/paleo/etc to lose weight because No S isn't producing the weight loss that I want it to', you can pick 2-3 of your 15 weekday meals per week to eat slightly fewer calories/carbs/portions/whatever than you currently do, then monitor how you feel & what you weigh after one month. This will allow you to see if that basic level of additional dietary attention is enough to reasonably move the weight loss needle without having to completely overhaul everything. Because No S primarily only defines 'when' - rather than 'what' (except for sweets) - you eat mon-fri, it works with virtually any eating style, and, even better, allows you to implement that style for only some of your weekly meals while continuing to allow you to build habits.

I'd recommend approaching it this way IF AND ONLY IF it becomes necessary - and it might not... you might find that your appetite simply calms down the longer you stick to 3 plates. But, even if it doesn't, you'll be in a great spot to introduce simple/occasional interventions that can have an impact. Good luck!

"No S is such a good way to combat the randomness, which is often the slide into more and more." - oolala53